Musing Mondays (July 26)

This week’s musing asks…

Do you review books? If so, for who?

If not, have you ever thought about doing so? Why, or why not?

I do review books, and have been doing so since around September 2005. I started off reviewing, independently, for Bethany House publishers. Then I did so for HarperCollins Canada‘s “First Look” program, and a short stint (one month) with Romantic Times Magazine. Next, I signed up to review books through LibraryThing.com‘s “Early Reviewers” program. And, most recently, I became a member of FIRST Wild Card Tours — a blog tour company that gets books from various Christian publishers for review each month.

Of course, I also occasionally receive offers to review for various authors or publicity companies. I haven’t taken on many of those, recently, though, as I’ve been too full-up with reviews for FIRST.

I love reviewing books. Not only do I get to read books that aren’t out yet, I also love to be able to share my thoughts with others, and know that I’ve maybe influenced them towards reading those particular books.

I’m also truly grateful for the opportunity to review so many books, as –with my current state of (financial) affairs– there’s no way I’d have access to any of these books, otherwise. My husband’s a full-time student, and I only work part-time, so buying new books isn’t really a luxury I can afford right now.

And, last — but not least — I like that I can pass on my read-and-reviewed books to family & friends, so that they can enjoy the books, too! (of course, I’m picky about who I loan books to, but that’s another topic for another Musing Monday! LOL).

Edited to Add: Not only do I review (independently) for all of the above sources, but I also review every book I read, whether it’s a library book, one of my own, a borrowed book, etc. I started doing so in 2002, when I joined a Yahoo! book group called “Book-a-Week” — one of the ‘requirements’ of membership was to write a short review of each book you read. That evolved into me reviewing every book I read, and now I post those reviews on my blog(s). I love sharing what I read with others. I also love reading what others have said about the books they’ve read! I have found a lot of great books that way (and avoided a lot of bad ones, too, I’m sure!)

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your answer in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!

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